Attacks on Amazon Indians and on their land rights threaten vital areas of rainforest. FUNAI, the agency responsible for safeguarding indigenous tribes is being forced to withdraw due to underfunding, while Indians' attempts to assert their rights are met with state violence.

Abstract: --

Excerpt: A recent violent attack on a group of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest of northern Brazil is seen by environmentalists as a symptom of a new climate of hostility towards such groups, fuelled by conservative congressmen's attempts to undermine land rights.